It was a casual remark from a friend which struck a chord as he discussed the latest shambles at Dundee.
“It’s a bit like Raith Rovers, Airdrie and Falkirk.....some clubs just attract s***.”
Mmmm...maybe a bit unkind but fair point all the same – and hard to argue given decades of drama and trying to keep themselves afloat.
Living in Tayside as a teenager was an introduction into a bygone age, a City of Discovery where the dark blue team on Sandeman Street was stuck in the past.
Three decades later and nothing has changed.
As is usually the case when supporters air their grievances, it’s the small things about the ground which grate.
No chip and pin at the cash-only snack bar kiosks, and a tannoy system of such muffled proportions it sounds as though the announcer’s been abducted by the scary voice guy from Saw.
Toilets from a scene from Train-spotting, and a stadium of such disrepair it appears all attempts at any sort of improvements have been taken off the table.
The Never, Never Land site of a brand new stadium at Camperdown remains untouched and that’s only a tale of woes which doesn’t touch what’s happening on the park.
The decision to put a £30 premium on tickets for the Rangers match was a move which highlighted someone who is so out of tune with his own support. Who can blame the thousands of Dundee fans who decided against shelling out and opted against turning up?
Here’s another honest list of what this observer sees from the outside and half an ear on a few people within the club who actually appear to care.
An absentee owner and a managing director in John Nelms who opted for an oval ball at the weekend by attending Scotland’s game against Italy in Rome rather than his own Scottish Cup tie against Rangers at Dens the following day.
Not just a poor show, it stinks.
Nelms was neither at the St Mirren game in midweek nor in attendance when it matters most and as a decision-maker he’s gone from bad to worse.
When James McPake led Dundee back into the Premiership last summer, this reporter asked Nelms about his young manager and what followed was a soliloquy of sorts about a guy who’s family, a son and someone who’s going to continue in the post with more backing than before.
Not that much of a son it was to prove, cue the basket-case move to remove a bright young boss and the only thing prodigal was to allow Gordon Strachan to appoint his pal Mark McGhee in his place. It gets worse. Whisper it but it appears assistant boss Simon Rusk is actually the de facto man in charge.
All this is adding up to a relegation campaign. It’s also not an assault on a club but a statement of facts with which the fans themselves are in tandem.
Football and poor stewardship are under the microscope more than ever and it’s blaring through the Dundee tannoy that big problems are afoot.
They can muffle it all they want but some clubs do attract “s***”.
